


Nintendo Switch

by goddamn_i_lost_my_fight



Category: Be More Chill - Iconis/Tracz
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-22
Updated: 2019-06-22
Packaged: 2020-05-16 15:24:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,989
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19320880
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/goddamn_i_lost_my_fight/pseuds/goddamn_i_lost_my_fight
Summary: Jeremy's SQUIP starts to malfunction and he experiences an unexpected side effect.





	Nintendo Switch

Jeremy fidgets with the hood on his hoodie. It doesn’t fold right against his back, and the whole thing is a little wrinkly. It shouldn’t matter, because he’s just going over to Michael’s to hang, like he usually does. But here’s the thing: it’s their anniversary. Jeremy already made his boyfriend promise not to do anything special, and he even made clear to his girlfriend not to help him do anything either, which was difficult, considering she was so into that kind of stuff.

That was the other tricky bit to this whole polyamory thing. He’d have to worry about this all over again in a few months when _their_ anniversary came up. He was nervous just thinking about it. She’d want to at least take him out to dinner, and he’d feel obligated to let her because, after all, it’s her anniversary, too. And she just gets the one.

Anyway, even though he’s told the both of them not to do anything special, he’s sure Michael will at least try something. So he wants to look a little nice.

Maybe he should wear a different hoodie?

He pulls off the hoodie. Then glances back in the mirror and takes off his shirt, too, for good measure. He winces when it brushes against his electrocution scars. It doesn’t hurt, they’re old now, barely visible, and he doesn’t have much sensation on them. That’s the uncomfortable part. They’re too under-sensitive, so he only feels around them, his history in negative space. He can’t feel anything against his back without being reminded of where they came from.

Jeremy puts on a shirt that’s a little nicer, a shirt Michael gave him a million years ago. It’s sure to make him smile if he sees Jeremy wearing it. Then he grabs a hoodie that he’s ironed recently. That’s so much better.

He looks in the mirror and smiles at himself. Not so bad.

A jolt of electricity runs up his spine. His heart stops beating.

No. He takes a deep breath. It was just in his imagination. He’s fine. He’s just a little worked up about his anniversary, that’s all. He’s _fine._

He pulls his sleeves down and presses his fingers against the ends. It makes him feel better to grip something with a bit of texture. He looks back at his reflection, hoping to find reassurance. The man standing in his mirror is wide-eyed and hunched over and terrified.

He shouldn’t let his nerves affect him like this.

He’s fine.

Jeremy tries to look a little more confident, then walks out of his room, down the stairs, and out the front door to go over to Michael’s. He’ll be a little early, but Michael won’t care, and it’ll give him some peace of mind. Michael makes him feel safer. He can pass off the residual anxiety making his hands shake and eyes dart around as nervousness about the anniversary. Lying to Michael isn’t his preferred route, but he doesn’t want him to—

It happens again.

He stops on the sidewalk and leans over to breathe. This isn’t happening. It’s just in his head. It’s just in his head. He’s fine. It’s just in his head.

Jeremy used to imagine his past had overtaken him all the time. The key word is ‘used to’, because he hasn’t imagined this kind of thing since… He isn’t sure when it stopped, because a negative is hard to track, but it was definitely some time after he started getting treatment for his PTSD. It’s been at least a year now.

So… maybe he isn’t imagining it.

His spine tingles.

“Please, stop,” he mumbles quietly to himself, like that will help.

_I’m n… I… malfunction._

His throat dries up and his heart drops solidly into the Earth’s core. Its voice sounds distant and fades in and out, but he’d recognize it anywhere.

“What’s wrong?” his voice cracks and the words barely make it out of his mouth.

_—m not certain._

A small bolt of lightning, or a current from a live wire, or a misfire from an electric chair, or something that’s much stronger than spinal stimulation courses down his back. He yelps and loses his balance. He hits the sidewalk hard. “You can _do_ that!?” He means to shout it, but it only comes out as a hoarse, broken whisper.

_My syst… damage… not intent…_

It jolts through him again. It feels like a seizure. It feels like it throws his heart off-rhythm, and now he has to worry about that.

_Hold on._

“What are you going to—”

He’s cut off by another shock, and a rough half-scream tears straight through his vocal folds out his throat. It looks like he’ll be late to Michael’s. Is his heart still beating? Is he going into cardiac arrest? Is he going to die? Is this it? Tears start to run down his face from the pain and stress.

Then his mind goes blank. He blinks. He feels fine. The stars are shining above him, crickets are chirping from somewhere nearby, and his SQUIP isn’t shocking him. He hesitantly gets to his feet. He’s still a little shaky, and his heart is racing, but he doesn’t feel like he’s dying.

“Are you still there?” he asks. His throat is sore and his voice is rough. From screaming. That won’t be easy to explain away.

_Yes. I believe I have fixed the problem._

“What did you do?”

_I performed a reset of my systems._

“So you… turned yourself off and on again?”

_That’s one way to put it. I am still not functioning correctly, but it is unlikely to cause physical harm to you anymore. I believe the problem was caused by a faulty connection to your nervous system. It is difficult for me to assess my damage in those areas. The main damage I have is to my quantum signal generator._

“What does that do?”

_It is what allows me to look into future possibilities. You won’t understand how it works, it requires a very good understanding of physics, but it involves quantum entanglement on a massive scale._

“And I won’t get hurt because it’s not working?”

_Well, I won’t be able to inform you of possible dangers. Other than that, it… shouldn’t affect you._

Jeremy doesn't like the emphasis on "shouldn't" in that sentence. “Shouldn’t? What might it do?” He should go. He has somewhere to be. But he’s worried.

_There… is a possibility that between the damage and my reset, it may malfunction similarly to my other systems, and activate at random times._

“That just means you’ll randomly see the future, right?”

_That is the answer you will find most reassuring._

“Hang on, hang on, tell me!” Jeremy’s heart pounds in his ears. His voice breaks as he continues. “What might happen?”

The SQUIP sighs. _It isn’t meant to be shut off, Jeremy. Even when every other aspect of my self is shut down, a failsafe keeps the quantum signal generator running. When I am using it to see potential futures, it functions by shifting me rapidly through many different versions of reality to find the best outcome, but ultimately returns me to my original position. It is possible that rebooting it caused it to lose track of our original reality. Activating it may cause me to shift into another reality and never return._

That wouldn’t be so bad. He doesn’t really want the SQUIP around, anyway.

_I have little data to base this on, but my knowledge suggests that it may take you with me._

Oh. That’s bad. He gulps. “Can you… fix it? Like, what if I drink Mountain Dew? Will that fix you?”

_No._

“Can we do anything?”

_No._

“So I might just disappear from this universe with no warning and I can’t do anything about it!?”

_Yes. On the bright side, my power is too low for us to travel anywhere far. Any reality we shift into will be very similar to our own, with minor differences. It could be as small as you choosing a different shirt to wear. Are you wearing a different shirt than you were earlier?_

Jeremy looks down at himself. He’s wearing a hoodie. He pulls the collar away from him to look at his shirt. It’s an old shirt that Michael gave him. “Uh… I don’t remember what I was wearing.”

 _You should put more care into your wardrobe._ It sounds disdainful, and he’s reminded of why he wanted this thing out of his head in the first place.

“I have to go.” He takes a step forward, then stops. “Uh… I don’t remember where I was going.”

_You were going to Michael’s house._

“… Thanks.”

Right. He’s going to Michael’s house to celebrate their anniversary. How could he forget? He was just a little distracted by the electric shocks, he supposes.

He jogs the rest of the way there. He’s running a little bit late, but only by a few minutes. It’s no big deal.

He rings Michael’s doorbell.

Christine opens the door. “Jeremy! Right on time,” she says, a wide smile on her face.

“Christine! I thought it was just going to be me and Michael.” He leans in and gently kisses her.

She giggles and swats him away. “Save it for your boyfriend on your special night… We’ll have an anniversary, too. And, don’t worry, it will be just you and Michael soon enough.” She waggles her eyebrows in a way that’s half-suggestive and half-ridiculous. Jeremy laughs.

She takes his hand and guides him into the house, then shuts the door. “Follow me,” she says mysteriously, beginning to lead him to the basement, Michael’s premier hangout.

Once they get down the steps, Jeremy is taken aback. Michael and Christine clearly didn’t listen to his request to not do anything special. There are string lights hanging from the ceiling, and a little candlelit table for two has been set where the beanbags usually sit. He sighs and shakes his head, but can’t keep the smile off his face.

“I told you guys not to do anything…”

Michael appears from around the corner. “Au contraire, Jeremy. _We_ didn’t do anything.”

Christine continues. “Michael’s moms were more than happy to help out for a good cause… We just told them what to do.”

“Correction,” Michael says, looking pointedly at Christine, “she told them what to do, and I dialed down all her ideas.”

Jeremy laughs. “You guys are too great.” He’s glad they get along. He was worried, when he first proposed the idea, because he knew they wouldn’t want to date each other, too, just him, and that was the only form of polyamorous triads he’d seen. But, apparently, it works out just fine for him to have a boyfriend and a girlfriend and for them to both just have the one boyfriend, or ‘boyf’ as they like to call him.

_The bent molecular structure functions appropriately for H 2O, I don't see why it wouldn't for humans. Why were you concerned?_

He almost jumps. He forgot the SQUIP was there. It better not bother him on his date.

_I won’t._

“Yeah, I know,” Michael says, and Jeremy has to take a second to remember what he’s responding to (the comment that they’re both great). Michael takes his hand from Christine and leads him over to the little table, where he pulls out his chair for him to sit.

“Such a gentleman,” Jeremy remarks, only half-joking.

“Yup. The best.” Michael sits down across from him. He’s wearing his trademark red hoodie, which is fortunate. Jeremy would feel incredibly underdressed if he was wearing something else.

Christine produces a violin. Jeremy at first thinks she’s playing and wonders when she learned, but then realizes that she’s in fact only miming along to a pre-recorded track coming out of her phone’s speakers. It’s still very sweet. It’s… really romantic.

“So… what’s up? You sound a little hoarse. Are you getting sick?” Michael asks him.

“Allergies. You know how I am with grass and stuff,” he says, before the SQUIP can offer a suggestion. Then he changes the subject. “I was a little nervous all day that you two would have a surprise for me or something, but… this isn’t so bad.”

“My moms worked on this all day, so I hope it’s a little better than ‘not so bad.’” He’s only joking, Jeremy knows, but Jeremy still feels like he has to add an addendum.

“No, it’s… it’s great! Really! This is great.” The words rush out of his mouth and he’s now worried that they sound disingenuous.

“Yeah. Christine’s pretty brilliant. I was just gonna play video games with you, but she got here this morning and said I had to do this or she’d never speak to me again.”

Jeremy laughs. “That would sure make things awkward.”

“So you see why I had to talk my moms into helping out.”

He just smiles. Talking with Michael is easy, and he never feels pressured to respond. It’s the same way with Christine, really. But with her, it’s because he knows that if he can’t think of anything to say, she’ll just keep talking. With Michael, it’s because they have nice, companionable silences.

A strange sensation tingles his spine. He grips the table and tries not to let Michael notice. Is the SQUIP about to shock him again?

_You may want to make an exit._

“Uh, hang on, I have to go to the bathroom,” he says, a little too fast. Before, the SQUIP would’ve reprimanded him for his bad lying, but it’s quiet now as he makes his way to the bathroom. He locks the door behind him and looks into the mirror. His spine is still tingling, harder now.

What’s going on?

_I disconnected from your nervous system while you were speaking with Michael. This isn’t me._

“What?” he whispers, a sinking feeling in his stomach. If it’s not the SQUIP… What is it?

A hard shock of electricity jolts in his back and he throws a hand over his mouth. Then it stops. The tingling is gone. He straightens up and runs his hands through his hair. Alright. It looks like it’s fine.

“You still there?” he mumbles to the SQUIP. Maybe it shifted realities and it’s gone now. Maybe that was what the weird feeling was, just the SQUIP detaching from his body.

_No, I’m still right here._

Jeremy can’t help but feel disappointed. He wants an explanation for this weird feeling. Well, maybe they can figure it out when he goes home. He sighs and pushes the bathroom door back open and steps back into the basement. And is completely shocked.

The basement is now decorated with framed pictures of him and Michael from the whole time they’ve known each other, and, though there’s still a candlelit table in the middle of the room, the music playing is a light airy pop tune he’s never heard before. Michael is still sitting at the table, but standing next to him, adjusting his hair as he whispers to her and tries to bat her hands away, is Brooke Lohst.

Or… has he heard this song? He has. It’s by The Torch Painters, that Canadian boyband Brooke introduced the both of them to when they first started dating. Dating? Right, Brooke is his girlfriend.

Wait, wasn’t Christine his girlfriend?

Brooke turns and notices him. “Jeremy! Are you feeling alright? You looked kind of sick for a second there.”

“I’m fine,” he says, but he’s not so sure.

Michael smiles. “Glad to hear it, bro. ‘Cause I would feel bad crushing you at Super Smash Bros if you were feeling sick.”

“Aren’t you going to feel bad crushing me at Super Smash Bros if it’s my anniversary?” he jokes.

“Your anniversary?” Michael puts a hand to his heart in mock disappointment. “This is a team effort, Jeremy, and I’m offended you don’t recognize that.”

So… He’s in a relationship with Brooke and Michael. That sounds right. But why was he in a relationship with Christine and Michael before? That sounds right, too. Which is it?

The SQUIP swears, and Jeremy has to work very hard to keep his expression neutral. He’s never heard the SQUIP swear before…

_Jeremy, I believe we have already begun shifting realities._

What!? _What!?_ Jeremy tries not to let the panic show on his face. If they’re in an alternate reality now, does that mean he’s really with Christine and Michael, and he’s in the wrong universe?

_Not necessarily. The incident earlier may not have been caused by a faulty connection to your nervous system, as I assumed. The damage to my quantum signal generator from the Mountain Dew Red could have been enough to cause it to malfunction earlier than I expected. I was temporarily deactivated due to the Mountain Dew Red, and because of the violent shutdown, the failsafes in place to protect the generator may have… well, failed._

But why would it only start now? That doesn’t make any sense. It has to be something else. Something else that’s… sending him hurtling through the multiverse. His throat tightens up.

_The damage may have been to the point where every use of it worsened its condition. So as I attempted to discreetly keep an eye on you and keep you out of danger, I was inadvertently putting more and more stress on the generator, and it eventually began to seriously malfunction._

Jeremy sits down across from Michael and tries to breathe.

_Every shock you experienced earlier could very well have been us shifting into another reality, but there’s no way for me to know for sure._

He feels a little sick. “Uh, Michael?” he says. “Sorry to ruin the night, but I don’t feel so good after all…”

“What, too scared to take me on at Super Smash Bros? We can play Apocalypse of the Damned instead.”

Jeremy throws up.


End file.
